updated 06:20 pm EDT, Tue October 15, 2013

Could conceivably increase ban to cover three additional patents

Despite the current government shutdown, an International Trade Commission lawyer has filed a notice of Apple's intent to appeal unfavorable portions of the company's ITC win against Samsung back in August. Though the ruling awarded Apple a victory in declaring that Samsung had infringed on multiple Apple patents -- resulting in an embargo against mostly-now-discontinued Samsung smartphone models -- the iPhone maker is still pushing for a broader ban that includes more patents.

The Notice of Appeal (seen below) to the Federal Circuit is routine, and for the time being will only act to preserve Apple's right to appeal any part of the ITC ruling it finds unfavorable. The ITC, along with most government functions, is currently suspended due to the shutdown.

An analysis of the filing by patent case watcher Florian Mueller reveals that Apple is trying to build on its victory with the ITC by questioning the panel's clearance of a number of Samsung "workarounds" that are designed to allow certain current products to continue to be sold, in spite of the fact that they previously infringed non-SEP Apple patents. The iPhone maker also wants to modify a "claim construction" on some of the patents that it already won a victory on in order to broaden the scope of Samsung products that might be infringing.

Were Apple to prevail on all its new claims, more and even some current Samsung products would be affected by the now-enforced sales ban (which is currently all but pointless, as the devices are no longer sold by Samsung), and could even result in barring current Samsung products that may be infringing three other Apple patents. Samsung will of course also appeal the ITC's ruling, but will challenge the ITC's dismissal of most of Samsung's original complaint along with the overall verdict.

After an investigation, the ITC found that Apple was not violating several non-SEPs that Samsung claimed it was infringing. Samsung also failed to win a Presidential veto of the import ban against its older products.